- Q: How can education improve the health of mothers and their children?
- A: Women with some formal education are more likely to seek medical care during pregnancy, ensure their children are immunized, be better informed about their children’s nutritional requirements, and adopt improved sanitation practices. As a result, their infants and children have higher survival rates and tend to be healthier and better nourished.
World Bank: Investing in Education for Half a Century
Of all the goals, educating children—particularly girls—has the greatest impact on eliminating poverty. Studies show that an extra year of secondary schooling for girls can increase their future wages by 10 to 20 %. The World Bank has placed education at the forefront of its poverty-fighting mission since 1962, and is the largest external financier of education in the developing world.
A young girl finishes a day of school in Bangladesh.
- A girl with a 5th grade education is likelier to:
- marry at a later age
- have fewer children
- decrease her chances of being infected with HIV/AIDS
- find employment later in life
- seek medical care
- vote in her community
- gain access to credit
Making Strides in Education
Support for primary education has been a priority over the past decade for the International Development Association (IDA), the World Bank’s fund for the poorest countries. IDA integrates education into national economic strategies, and creates education systems that empower children to become productive citizens.
Our Education Strategy
- Measure education outcomes, especially for poor people and disadvantaged communities
- Offer innovative incentives, like cash for attendance, to keep kids in school
- Ensure that education leads to learning skills, and that it is relevant and of good quality
- Establish standards for teachers and schools
- Train teachers, especially those who serve disadvantaged communities
Some of Our MDG 2 Results
With IDA’s help over the last decade, countries have trained more than 3 million additional teachers, built or renovated more than 2 million classrooms for 105 million children, and purchased or distributed about 300 million textbooks.
- Afghanistan: From 2001 to 2008, the number of girls attending schools jumped from 15,000 to 2.2 million.
- Vietnam: The share of education in Vietnam’s national budget grew from 7% in 1986 to around 20% in 2008.
- India: Since 2001, 20 million more out-of-school children have been able to attend school.
- Ethiopia: In the past 5 years, primary net enrollment has increased by about 15%.
- Yemen: Girls completing primary school rose from 38% in 2001 to 51% in 2009.
How’s the World Doing?
- 2/3 of developing countries reached gender parity in primary schools as of 2005.
- 37 million decrease in number of out-of-school children worldwide in the past 10 years.
- 18% rise in universal primary enrollment in sub-Saharan Africa over the past 10 years.
- 3 of 22 fragile states had achieved MDG 2 as of 2009.
